


The 27 Club

by Herodotus



Category: League of Legends, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Action & Romance, Alternate Universe - Percy Jackson Fusion, F/F, Quests, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-17 14:55:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29594499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Herodotus/pseuds/Herodotus
Summary: Robert Johnson, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse: seven artists of unrivaled talent, seven children of Apollo, seven members of the most exclusive club in the world, seven people dead at the age of 27. Music history is full of talented people who died early and tragically, but there's something different about the members of the 27 club. Some say it's a curse. Some people know better. There's something out there hunting children of Apollo. Always waiting for its next meal.Leona hasn't been to Camp in years. She's been busy touring and running from heartache. She thought being on the move all the time would keep the monsters from finding her. She was wrong. Now she has to fight for her life with the help of an old friend and an old flame. Can she avoid joining the club?
Relationships: Diana/Leona (League of Legends)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	1. Sound Check

**Author's Note:**

> CW: substance abuse, overdose, suicide

Mississippi in the summer never really got cool, even in the evenings, like now. Leona could feel the oppressive humidity smothering her as she lay in the bed, struggling to breathe. Or was that that poison? Wait, what poison? She turned her head to look over the end of the bed feeling sluggish and slow, too slow. A figure clothed entirely in shadows placed a tainted bottle of whiskey down on the table, one of the only pieces of furniture in the shack. It turned to look at her, staring right through her. 

“We are coming for you, child of the Sun.” the shadow spoke to her and began to laugh coldly as Leona felt her breathing and her heart begin to fail and her eyelids drift slowly down.

\----

September in London was much more pleasant than August in Mississippi. Still, Leona felt the same cold dread eating at her heart as she stared blankly around the apartment. A much nicer place to be than her last location she thought. She could feel the same poison working through her system as the same shadowy figure placed a bottle of pills on the low table next to her.

“It’s been so long since we feasted on the light of the Sun.” the figure said as it began to coldly laugh again. This time Leona tried to scream as she began to drift away again, only for her mouth to be stuck silently open.

\---

Time of year never meant much in Los Angeles, the weather was always perfect in California after all, right? The glamour of Hollywood and the plastic perfection didn’t matter to Leona right now. Cold poison was still clawing the inside of her chest, still not allowing her to breathe. Breathing was so important, if you can’t breathe you can’t sing.

“This was such a good year for us, two children of the Sun in such a short time...mmmm I remember the delicious pain” the shadow coldly laughed as it placed yet another bottle of pills before Leona. She tried to roll off the bed she was laying on to take action, any action would be preferable to just lying down to die meekly. She managed to get an arm up before it became just too heavy to hold, like at the end of a long day of sparring with Atreus after climbing the rock wall at camp. Her arm fell limply back to the bed as her eyes closed again.

\---

Paris was cold in the winter, so cold. Leona had never liked the winter, too little sunlight and never warm enough. Or was that another side effect of all the poison?

“Ah yes, your father sent us so many of his children to feast on.” The shadowy figure mocked her as it set down yet another bottle of pills. Why was it always pills? Leona began to wonder. She began to fade out faster this time, even as the shadow figure still laughed mercilessly.

\----

Leona felt an almost twisted sense of triumph as she took the shotgun in her hands. At least she would be ending it on her own terms this time. Not a victim like so many of her siblings before her.

She could hear the shadow figure walking around the perimeter of her house over the sound of the rain, looking for a way in. It really was always raining in Seattle wasn't it? Whatever, this time it wouldn’t find one. She smiled as she pulled the trigger.

\----

She didn’t know how she recognized it but she knew she was back in London, even if in a different section of the city and decades later. What remained the same was the cold seeping through her body and a bottle of pills being set down on a low table.

“Come find me, child of the Sun, if you think you can succeed where your siblings failed.” Its cold, mocking laughter followed her as everything began to go black again.

\----

Leona awoke with a start, looking wildly around. It took her a moment to recognize her surroundings. Late afternoon sunlight was filtering through the dark curtains covering the windows of the tour bus, creating shafts of illumination in the otherwise darkened interior. 

She was in New York City, they were here for a show, she would meet Atreus tonight after the show, then tomorrow she would sneak away for a couple of hours on their way to their next gig and see camp. She just hadn’t had a dream that vivid in years, not since...her.

She sat up in her bunk and shook her head. She didn’t need to get lost in those thoughts tonight. Tonight was all about putting on a good show, especially with some old friends supposed to be in the audience. Instead, she stood up and turned to get some clothes out of her bag.

What she didn’t see with her back turned was the eyes that seemed to flash in shadows and the grin, frozen in a malevolent leer, directed squarely at her.


	2. A Life Where We Work Out

The Irving Plaza was the kind of venue that Leona loved to play in. With a capacity of 1200 in the heart of New York it felt one of the intimate, Midwestern theaters where she and her band, the Sundrops, had come to realize their recent great successes. While Cain’s Ballroom held more people and they had played a sold out set at the Houston Rodeo those were right in the heart of Texas and Oklahoma, their home turf. Playing to 1200 people in New York City almost had the same sense of amazement for her as when they first went to Austin. 

Now as she gazed out from the side of the stage as their crew got everything ready for them to go on following their opening act, a talented local singer/songwriter named Seraphine, she could see the people in the balcony and on the floor, nearly crowding the stage, she could feel the butterflies begin to flit through her stomach.

“Feels like a long way from home, doesn’t it?” 

Leona turned to find Ryann, her normally soft spoken lead guitar player standing next to her. A willowy woman, only a little bit shorter than Leona herself, Ryann tended to let her guitar do the talking for her. It was surprising for many people to see the difference between her demeanor and the way Ryann could tear through a solo with the growly guitar that had helped define the Sundrops’ sound.

She gave the other woman a sunny smile as she replied, “Actually almost feels like coming home, did I ever tell you I used to come to a summer camp up here?” 

“Really?” Ryann couldn’t help but be surprised. She may consider Leona a sister but the redhead rarely spoke in depth about her past. 

“Yeah, but that was a long time ago.” Leona’s smile turned wistful as she took one last look over her shoulder at the crowd. For a brief second she almost thought she saw a mane of silver-white hair out in the crowd. But that would be impossible. 

When she turned back to the guitar player her smile was sunny once more and she had a focused look in her eyes. 

“Now, we have a show to play don’t we?” Leona said as she threw an arm around Ryann and began moving both of them towards the travel case that held their guitars and the rest of their bandmates.

\----

The show was going well. The Sundrops had a setlist that they had worked very hard on over years of dedicated touring, mixing together old and new songs to make sure everyone in the crowd had a good time. 

This was where Leona felt most at home. Up on the stage with the lights shining down on her, singing for people. It also never ceased to amaze her when the crowds would sing her lyrics back to her. 

“We’d like to thank you all for coming out to see us tonight!” Leona called out to the crowd, receiving a roar in response.

“It means so much to me to be back up here in New York.” She continued, the crowd only cheering louder in response. 

“You know, I used to go to a summer camp up here when I was a kid. I wrote this next song for someone I used to know at that camp. I hope wherever she is tonight that she’s happy.” With that said, Leona nodded over to Kylie, her fiddle player, who started the introduction to one of their best known songs, almost drowned out by the response of the crowd.

_In a life where we work out there’s a house up on a hill_  
_A front porch going all of the way round and a flower pot on a windowsill_  
_We sit and watch the sunset while the kids play in the field_  
_In a life where we work out there’s a house up on a hill_

Leona sang the first verse and flashed back to when she first wrote the song, able to see in her mind’s eye the wide verandah of the Big House and the golden light of a sunset in the strawberry fields at camp. In her mind she was always standing on that porch with her again, taking a quiet moment together after dinner.

_I still call you darlin, you still call me baby_  
_I smile in the mirror when I say our new last name_  
_You take me out dancing on the weekends you don’t sing_  
_In a life where we work out you still call me baby_

The illusion was broken though when R.C., the bass player of the Sundrops and occasional songwriting partner, took up the second verse. Leona had always intended the song to be a duet, and R.C. did the song justice, after all, she helped Leona write it, but R.C. wasn’t the girl Leona wanted to be on the porch with. 

Instead she focused back in on the song and put all of that longing into the words. This was why people came out to see them, because Leona was able to use her gifts to sing the words that resonated with their lives. Leona owed it to the audience to put her all into the performance.

\---

The show ended hours ago but that hardly meant that Leona’s work was done. After they were done performing Leona and the rest of the Sundrops made it a point to hang out at their merch table. It was a habit they started in the smaller bars and dance halls when they were just starting as a band and simply continued as they played bigger venues for more people. It was important to all of them to stay connected to the people who came out to support them.

Countless photos and autographs later Leona and the rest of the band helped their crew load up the instruments and the sound equipment. Most of the heavy lifting may have been done already while the Sundrops were out with the fans but the crew was also part of their family. And family helps family. 

Now Leona was walking by herself down a sidewalk just outside of Central Park, on her way to a diner. She had told the band and the crew to head towards Boston, where they were scheduled to play their next gig, without her. They had a few days until they were due to play and Leona wanted to catch up with an old friend while she was in New York. 

It’d been so long since she had seen anyone from her days at camp. Given the fact that none of them used cell phones once she stopped going to camp and started touring she just hadn’t been able to talk to anyone from back then anymore. But when they were supposed to play in New York she borrowed a cell phone and made a call. Camp and the friends she had there were still a large part of who she was.

The diner they were supposed to meet in was just visible up ahead, one more block down and on the other side of the street. She picked up her pace a little bit as she saw it, early May though it was, the night had grown cooler than she anticipated, especially away from the heat generated in the crowds during and after the show ended. Now she almost shivered despite the flannel shirt she had added to her t-shirt and blue jeans, signature sunflower still tucked into her long red hair.

Leona was so focused on her destination that she only barely noticed the dark blur of movement out of the corner of her eye as it hurdled out of the alley she was passing and slammed into her. She felt her breath leave her body in a great whoompf as her back hit the concrete. Years of training had her body moving on instinct as her arms came up to keep her throat and face protected.

Leona stared up in a daze at what was attacking her. It vaguely looked like a dog, but really only in that it moved on four legs. Snapping just inches from her face were teeth darker than the night around them and sharp as needles. She forced herself to look beyond the immediate threat of those teeth to the rest of the creature. It’s body was covered in chitinous plates, mostly in a mottled purple and black, like a great ugly bruise, except for its head, which was a pure, bone white, contrasting with those sharp teeth. 

Leona had fought her share of monsters before, but this looked like nothing she was familiar with. She barely had time to process the terror before her when she felt a searing pain dig into her left side. Of course the thing had razor sharp claws as well. Her arms were beginning to shake from the weight of the thing bearing down on her, jaws reaching and snapping at her throat. She drew her legs up towards her chest before kicking out with them, throwing the thing off her and back down the alley it came from. 

She heard the weight of the creature slam into a dumpster, making it ring out into the night. It seemed she hadn’t gotten too rusty, she thought to herself as she scrambled to her feet, reaching her left hand up to her side. It felt warm and sticky and she looked down to see her shirt now covered in red, that certainly wasn’t good. 

Then she heard a growl from the alley the creature had been thrown down. It seemed that thing would be harder to kill than she hoped. The creature slowly emerged from the alley, head held low and shoulders hunched, ready to pounce. She was running out of options. 

She could try to run for it. The creature seemed to know this though and began circling around to her right, putting itself between her and her destination and emitting a low growl from deep within its throat. Running back the way she came also seemed like a bad idea. This thing was clearly a predator and any sudden movements, especially ones that looked like running away, would send it springing into action.

That left fight. She had stopped carrying a weapon with her years ago, relying on the fact that she was constantly moving to shield her from any monsters. The years she spent pursuing music had also been years she had neglected training too, fighting this thing would be a bad idea. But bad idea though it was, it was her only option.

She squared her shoulders and raised her fists. The thing stopped circling and hunched down. They stared at each other for what seemed like forever, Leona never breaking eye contact with the four beady little black orbs planted in the things head. 

Then it leapt. 

Leona charged.

She lowered her shoulder and managed to catch the thing in the middle of its chest, her momentum carrying them both forward. Her satisfaction at the hit was short lived though as she felt its front claws dig into her back, opening up burning lines of pain. Even worse, its rear claws started to kick into her stomach and she felt the claws in those legs dig into her. 

The pain was too much and she fell over, gasping and dropping the creature. That thing, of course, sprung easily back to its feet and began circling again. Leona, on the other hand struggled to stand and once she did, she stood hunched over, unable to stand straight thanks to the pain in her stomach. 

She grit her teeth and glared at the thing. It figured that she couldn’t escape the monsters forever. They always used to find her when she was away from camp. Touring all the time could only help for so long. She’d be damned, though, if she let this thing kill her, rusty or not. 

She was hurting though, and the thing was just too damn fast. It stayed low this time and threw its body weight into her knee, bowling her legs out from under her. 

This time when she fell she hit her head. Hard. She stared up in a daze, the taste of copper filling her mouth as the thing entered her field of vision once more. It bared its fangs and began to lower its jaws to her throat. She tried to move her arms again, but the blow to her head must have left her more dazed than she realized. They just wouldn’t move. 

It was a shame she couldn’t even see the stars right now. That would have been a comfort at the end. 

“LEONA!” 

She heard someone call her name but they seemed really far away. 

Then the weight on top of her was gone. 

Then everything faded to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title and the lyrics in the chapter are from "A Life Where We Work Out" by Flatland Cavalry and Kaitlin Butts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgIpTozbVOI&ab_channel=FlatlandCavalry). Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.


	3. Old friend, it's been a while

Chapter 2: Old Friend, it’s been a while

Things happened to Leona in a confused blur and jumble of events. 

She was in a car and someone was dribbling a liquid into her mouth that tasted like s’mores made with campfire roasted marshmallows. She felt like she should recognize this but thinking was just too hard. Sleeping was easier.

As she faded out she heard someone mutter above her, “C’mon, you’re not that easy to kill.” 

Whatever.

\---

She woke up again, in a bed this time. Her head throbbed and her mouth felt like the desert. This time she could just crack her eyes open.  
The room she was in looked vaguely familiar, almost like one of the bedrooms in the Big House. But that didn’t make sense, she hadn’t been to Camp in years, why would she be back now?

Then she noticed the girl with blue hair seated on the edge of the bed, a bowl nestled in her lap and holding a spoon out to Leona.

“Wh-” Leona began to croak out, her voice raspy from disuse, she stopped to try and swallow.

The girl simply shook her head and held her finger up to her lips, guiding the spoon closer to Leona’s lips. Leona opened her mouth to try and ask again, but that just provided the strange girl the opportunity to push the spoon in. With no choice but to swallow the substance that tasted like fresh watermelon but had the consistency of pudding, she did so. That seemed to satisfy her silent companion who placed the spoon back in her bowl and stood up, off the bed and left, closing the door softly behind her. 

Leona looked around the room again and found a glass of water left on the nightstand. Picking it up she took several sips. Her mouth now feeling less disgusting her eyelids began to drop once more. She set the glass down and fell back to sleep.

\---

This time when she opened her eyes she was greeted by a familiar face. He was a large man, tall and obviously well muscled, about her age, with a head of close cropped, dark hair in a low mohawk, a neatly trimmed beard, and tan skin. 

“Well, well, well, good morning, Sunshine,” He said with a huge grin breaking over his face and almost erasing the worry that was still etched into his eyes.

Leona let out a groan and closed her eyes again.

“Really, Atreus? Starting with that already?” She asked with her eyes still closed.

“Of Course,” He said with a small chuckle, “You always were my favorite Apollo kid.”

“Spoken like a true child of Ares, Meathead,” she said, a small smile slowly growing on her own face.

“Good to see you’re still alive in there after all,” he said with a bark of laughter. 

Leona slowly sat up in the bed, giving a small grunt and wincing at the pain from her protesting side and shoulder. She began to move her arm to keep the sheet from falling down her chest before noticing the heavy bandages that covered the majority of her torso.

“Looks like I gave a good try at not being alive,” she said with a wry smirk.

“Yeah, not going to lie, you had us scared there for a while.” Atreus said as he stood up and walked over to the other chair in the room, picking up the orange t-shirt, one that matched his own, that was draped over the back, and a pair of denim shorts also on the chair.

“It’s a good thing you’ve got some talented siblings,” he said as he tossed her the clothes.

“Gods know you’ve spent enough time in the infirmary to know,” she said, slipping the shirt over her head and wincing and letting out a hiss of pain as she shoved her arm through the sleeve.

“Not that you were ever in there to help out,” he jabbed back.

She glared at him as she swung her legs over the side of the bed. “So I didn’t get all of the gifts from dad,” she said as she slipped her legs into the shorts and her feet into a pair of shoes left by the bed.

He snorted. “Or a lot of them, I’ve never felt the urge to duck so much around the Apollo cabin at the archery range since you were there.”

She attempted to stand and scowl at him but the scowl was undercut by a spell of dizziness that forced her to sit back down abruptly. Suddenly he was kneeling on the floor in front of her, one hand on her good shoulder and a worried look back in his eyes.

“Easy there, Sunshine, you’ve been out of it for a while, take a minute,” he murmured to her.

“Can’t believe I let some lone monster get the best of me like that,” she said quietly to him.

“Yeah, well, you’re rusty,” he said. You could always rely on Atreus to give you the blunt truth of it. “I’m just happy I was there.” 

“Guess I owe you one for that,” she said with a small huff of mirthless laughter. 

“Stick around for a little bit, let me help you work some of the rust off, we’ll call it even,” he replied gently.

“I can’t be off the road for that long, man you know that. We have shows to play,” she protested.

“Well...about that,” he suddenly had a guilty look in his eye, “You were beat up so badly that we had to come up with a cover story,” he said sheepishly.

She fixed him with another glare. “Atreus, who did you talk to and what did you tell them?” She grit out through clenched teeth.

“Well,” he started slowly, “It’s a good thing you keep your manager’s card in your wallet, first of all. Second of all, we may have just told her a modified version of the truth, that you had an accident and would need to take time to recover,” he finished brightly.

“How long did you tell them?” she continued through her clenched jaw.

“Technically, it wasn’t me,” he began, defensively.

“How long,” she growled, interrupting him.

“A-at least a month,” he mumbled.

A month? She couldn’t be off the road for a month right now. The Sundrops just released an album, they had to promote it.

He read the shocked look on her face. “Look, the Director has something she wants to talk to you about anyway,” he said hurriedly. “I don’t know all of the details, but from what I’ve been able to piece together, you may want that month.”

Great. Back into machinations she didn’t want any part of.

“Atreus, you know this is why I left right? I was tired of being jerked around on quests for her and the gods,” she said.

“I know, believe me, I know,” he replied, “But I really think you should hear her out on this one.”

That was surprising. Atreus may have stayed at camp but he was possibly the only person who really understood why Leona had struck out on her own, never begrudging her for the decision. He didn’t go on quests anymore for much the same reasons himself these days. If he said she should hear out the director on this one...maybe this really was big.

“Fine,” she sighed reluctantly and stood up, “I only promise to hear her out though. If I don’t like what I hear then I’m going back out on the road.”

Atreus popped quickly up to his feet. “That’s all you need to do,” he said reassuringly and headed towards the door which he opened. “Now, if you’ve had enough time being lazy in bed I’d suggest we get out of this room,” he said gesturing gallantly towards the open door.

Leona rolled her eyes as she walked towards her friend. “Come on, Meathead, lead the way,” she said as she shoved his shoulder, laughing as he took an exaggerated stumble out into the hallway. It really was good to see an old friend after so long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from the song "Oklahoma City" by Zach Bryan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wJ246eDOkU). Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.


	4. Don't go waistin' too much time down here

They found the Director out on the verandah of the Big House, sitting on a mat with her legs crossed, back straight, and eyes closed in meditation, just like Leona remembered her. 

Karma looked like a woman of no older than 30, her dark skin still smooth and flawless. Looks could be deceiving though. When most people choose to be reborn in the Underworld they bathe in the River Lethe, erasing all of their memories from their previous life. And if a soul achieves the reward of Elysium three times they find their way to the Isles of the Blessed and freed from any cycle of reincarnation. Karma was not most people and did not possess a typical soul. 

The story that was passed down from camper to camper over untold centuries was that Karma made a deal with the gods. She was always reborn and always with all of her memories, dating all the way back to her first life, during the height of the gods’ power in Greece itself. In exchange for this immortality, Karma was expected to teach and lead the heroes of each age.

“Leona, it’s good to see you back on your feet,” Karma greeted them without so much as cracking an eye open. Gods, it was spooky when she did that.

“Karma, it’s good to see you again,” Leona replied, deciding on a neutral greeting. She appreciated Karma as a mentor, every half blood did, but she had a way of convincing you that the gods really needed your help this time and it would only be one quest. That was the reason that the only person Leona had really wanted to see from camp while she was in New York was Atreus. Her old friend had stayed at the camp as an instructor and knew full well her aversion to taking quests. Every demigod had to find their own way to safely navigate the world, her’s was to be always moving, always on tour.

“How are you feeling, dear?” Karma asked, finally opening her eyes and rising gracefully from her seated position, turning to face the two demigods.

“Better, thanks. Guess I should stop in on cabin 7 and say thanks,” Leona replied, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly.

“Oh you’ll have plenty of time to express your gratitude while you train,” Karma assured her. 

“Ah, about that,” Leona said slowly, gaining confidence in her voice as she continued, “I appreciate all you’ve done for me here but I can’t stay off the road for a full month, we have commitments we have to play.” 

“No need to worry about those,” Karma told her, “we already have a cover story that we’ve supplied to your manager.” Karma walked towards the door that Leona and Atreus had just exited, beckoning the two to follow her. “Would you two care for some lemonade?” 

Leona had no choice but to follow in order to continue the conversation. “Yeah, Atreus filled me in, you told them that I was recovering from an accident, but couldn’t you just say that my injuries weren’t as severe as they looked and I was released early?” 

“I’m afraid that just won’t do, it would be detrimental to your recovery if you cut your stay here short,” Karma admonished her as she led them into the Big House’s kitchen. 

“Yeah, that may be true if I wasn’t already up on my own two feet but I should be good as new tomorrow,” Leona argued as Karma opened the door to the refrigerator and removed a pitcher of lemonade, setting it on an island behind her.

“I agree completely, you have some very talented siblings these days, you know,” Karma replied as she crossed the kitchen to a cabinet, pulling three glasses off the shelf. “However, appearing in public so soon after entering rehab would really send the wrong message to your fans. That you weren’t taking sobriety seriously.”

“Rehab?!?” Leona was astounded, her mouth dropping open in shock as she turned towards Atreus who could only offer an apologetic shrug to his old friend. “That’s what you told them?” She continued.

“Yes, my dear, after finding you collapsed on a street you were brought by a concerned old friend of yours to Mount Olympus Rehab where you will stay to rest and put your life back in balance,” she recited the words to Leona like she wrote the press release herself, which, she probably did.

Leona could only continue to stare dumbfounded at Karma. While Leona was no stranger to alcohol and weed she knew her limits and rarely indulged to excessive degrees. 

“Oh please stop giving me that look and come drink some lemonade,” Karma spoke around a chuckle. 

“But why rehab?” Leona practically whined.

“It was a convenient way to excuse you from the road for an extended period of time,” Karma replied like it was obvious. “Besides, you would hardly be the first musician to have had such a thing happen to them. The road becomes lonely and people turn to substances out of boredom between shows and it all starts to wear on them. Really is a tale as old as time, believe me,” she said with a smirk.

“You still haven’t even told me the real reason why I need to stay here for so long,” Leona pointed out, finally walking over to the island in the kitchen and grabbing one of the glasses of lemonade. She slumped on a nearby barstool and cradled her forehead in her hand.   
“I’m afraid the full story is not one I can tell you,” Karma told her. “Suffice it to say, the attack in New York was only the first.”

At that Leona buried her head in her hands and let out a groan. Of course it was. She should have known that running would only get her so far. Eventually the gods and Fates would catch up with her. The floorboards creaked as Atreus walked over and rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Having her best friend with her helped. If she could count on anyone to have her back, it was him.

Then the darkness behind her eyelids went white. Leona jerked up in surprise, on the verge of panic, then the vision began in earnest. Her surroundings were familiar, she was at the top of Half Blood Hill, under the great pine tree that grew at the summit. Down the slope of the hill, towards the road outside the boundary, she saw a boar and a silver stag standing, waiting for her. Then she heard the voice.

“Wait for the moon,” came a booming voice from the sky, as if from the sun itself. 

Then her vision cleared and she was back in the kitchen of the Big House, sitting bolt upright on her bar stool now.

“I presume you’re father has just sent you a message,” the older woman said with a knowing look.

Leona remained stiffly upright as her heart rate returned to normal levels. Now this was odd, in all of her years at camp and on her own she had never heard from Apollo. Not until now.

“Just promise me one thing,” Leona said, eyeing Karma with a deadly serious look.

“What’s that?” the director responded.

“You won’t make me sleep in Cabin 7, I’m sorry but I can’t bunk with teenage siblings anymore,” Leona said, running a hand over her face.

“We have other arrangements ready for you,” Karma assured her.

“Fine,” Leona said with a sigh, “time to go to rehab I guess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Title comes from "Down Here" by the Turnpike Troubadours (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8543i8c5vY)

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you think!


End file.
